Sins of a Siren (20 page)

“You mean that green-eyed ho?”

Lanky grinned broadly and began pacing as he read the excitement in King Gee's voice. “Yeah! Yeah!
That
bitch! She is workin' here at the Waters' Edge Hotel. I even saw her leave after her shift and followed her to her car. I got her license plate, too!”

“Good lookin' out…I'm gonna break you off a lil' reward money when I see you. Don't let on you know who she is…I have a special surprise in mind for that biotch…”

Trenda watched Jason adjust the badge on his security guard jacket before entering the lobby. He looked just like a cop. That thought made her feel a little better about leaving Baltimore. Darius was in Baltimore. Just the thought of one more night of letting him sexually abuse her was enough to make her current situation look pretty damn good. She didn't even want to think about the fact that the Island Boys gang was also looking for her. Jason lowered his gaze as he approached the counter. It was amazing how he reacted to Trenda versus Lollie. He looked at Lollie as if she was a princess, but he
acted
as if Trenda was the Queen. She barely heard him say, “Hi, Mya.”

She made herself busy moving items around behind the counter. “Wassup, Jason?”

He adjusted his cap. “Not much. You know, just patrolling the place.”

She sat down in her seat. “What did that dude want you were talkin' to?”

“He wanted to park in the passenger zone while he booked a room. He claimed he'd only be a minute, but you know how that goes; let one person do it and everybody will want to do it.”

Trenda looked over his shoulder and watched the thug enter the lobby while talking on his cell phone. “It looks like your friend made it back.”

Jason stepped aside as the young thug approached the desk. “I guess he found a place to park his ‘pimped-out' ride.”

Five feet from the counter, the thug did a double-take and hung up his phone after getting a good look at the sexy green-eyed hotel receptionist. His date took notice of Trenda and did her best not to show how intimidated she was by Trenda's undeniable sexiness. Trenda closed the calculator on her screen, removing the depressing image of the peasant wages she was earning. She smiled and greeted the pair. While checking them in for what she deducted was to be a freak session, her thoughts returned to her living conditions. She caught the thug's girlfriend staring and smiled, as she turned away, embarrassed. Trenda activated a pair of electronic room keys and handed them to the man. “Enjoy your stay.”

The thug's date tugged his arm after tiring of the way he fawned over Trenda. “C'mon, Peanut, let's go.”

He took the cards and grinned. “I have a few folks that might be lookin' for me later. I hope it's a'ight if we party a lil' bit.”

“It's okay as long as you and your ‘folks' don't destroy the place.” She looked over at Jason. “I'd hate to have to send my hit man up there to quiet y'all down.”

Jason hitched up his belt and produced a shy grin. “You folks just enjoy yourselves.”

The hours crawled by. Her irritated mood did little to help pass the time. As soon as her lunch break arrived, she turned the reception desk duties over to her Asian co-worker, Elena, grabbed her purse and hurried outside. The springtime, late afternoon sunshine helped heal her sick mood. She walked over to the railing next to the estuary and took a deep breath of the salty sea air. She thought about stealing Peanut from his hoodrat girlfriend. “Fuck no. don't you even go there, Trenda,” she told herself. “You are supposed to be tryin' to change your life, remember? Not using another fool to get your money hustle on.”

The loud blare of a horn across the water caused a flock of scavenging sea gulls to take flight. Trenda looked toward the sound of the horn and saw a drawbridge split open to allow a large sailboat to pass between it. A different sound caught her ear. She dug into her purse and retrieved her ringing cell phone. The caller ID read: “Secrease Funeral Homes.” “Hey, honey, wassup?”

“Everything is good, sexy. I was hoping we could hook up tonight so you can help me celebrate my birthday.”

A seagull landed on the railing five feet from her, begging for a treat. “Oh really? Is today your birthday?”

“No, it's actually tomorrow, but I want to get an early jump on it.”

She turned away from the sea gull's black, pleading eyes. “What are you doing at work if you are celebrating your birthday?”

“What makes you think I'm at work?”

“Have you ever heard of this new thing called ‘caller ID'?”

He chuckled. “I have got to remember that! I'm just here catching up on some paperwork until you get off, then I'm coming to take you to dinner.”

“I get off kinda late for dinner, don't you think?”

“Nine o'clock is perfect for a birthday dinner. I hope you eat sushi.”

“Yeah, it's okay.”

“Why do you sound like that? You sound as if somebody died.”

Sunset stole the last warm rays of sunshine. She checked the time on the giant clock on the Tribune Building and saw half her lunchtime was gone. “I'm cool…just been stressin' a little bit.”

“Sorry to hear that; I hope this bit of news makes you feel a little better. I called the hotel and extended your stay another two weeks.”

Trenda looked up into the twilight sky, smiled and shook her head. The similarity between Walter and Dennis, the D.C. lawyer she used to date, tickled her. The biggest difference between the two was the fact that Dennis was shy about fucking, where Walter had no problem taking a piece of pussy. She walked toward the hotdog cart in the center of the promenade. “Walter, I can't let you keep spendin' your money on me.”

“Look, Mya, let me worry about how I spend my money. I know exactly what I'm doing. To some, it may seem as though I am throwing my money away on a, pardon my French, ‘piece of ass,' but to me, it's called enjoying my life. I have no kids, no wife, no drug addictions and no bills. To be blunt, the money I spent on you so far, I made back in less than half a day. Now, enough of you worrying about me. Come help me bring in my fifty-first birthday the right way.”

Trenda looked at the fat hotdogs in the vendor's steamer. Her pussy and mouth watered. “Okay, okay. Give me time to get home and get changed and you can pick me up at ten.”

“T
hank you for flying Jet Blue,” the friendly-faced Caucasian flight attendant said as Darius departed his flight out of Newark International Airport. He'd booked the flight and rental car under his alias, Officer Kenneth Barnes.

“Thanks.” He checked his watch and hurried out of the boarding area. “I hate fucking flying.” He played “Bumper Cars” with people, wheelchairs and garbage cans in his haste to get to the American Airlines boarding gates. Once there, he stood in front of the digital display that showed the status of their flights. He set his briefcase down, removed the piece of paper with Piper's flight number on it from his pocket and scanned the board.

Once he saw that flight number 1131 was due to arrive in forty-six minutes, he relaxed and exhaled. “Cool…I have plenty of time to get my shit before that fat bitch's flight arrives.” The combination gift shop/convenience store to his right caught his eye. He went inside. “Yeah…this'll work,” he said as he plucked a pack of red rubber bands off the rack next to the toiletries and carried it to the counter.

After his purchase, he made his way to the Jet Blue baggage claim area and grabbed his two bags. As he bent over to pick up his duffle bag, a little black boy tugged on the pant leg of his faded jeans and pointed at his waist. He wiped his long dreads out of his face. “Wow! Is that a real police badge, mister?”

Darius pulled his New York Mets jersey down over the badge he wore clipped to his belt. He had forgotten to remove it after
showing it to security in order to explain why he had a firearm and a few other hard-to-explain items in his luggage. He forced a smile. “Yes it is, young man.”

The boy's brown eyes widened. “Whoa! Did you ever shoot anybody?”

Darius looked around and squatted down in front of the boy. He placed a finger to his lips. “Shhhh! Don't say it too loud; I don't want the bad guys to know I am looking for them.”

The boy went numb with awe. “Can I see your gun?”

Darius looked at the clock mounted above the luggage carousel and saw he had only half an hour until Piper's flight arrived. He stood and looked around. “Where are your parents?”

The boy looked around, then pointed toward the bank of pay phones thirty yards away. “My momma's right there on the phone.”

“How old are you, little man?”

He grinned and held up four fingers. “This many!”

He looked over at the extremely young-looking, tall woman dressed in a Chicago Bulls sweatsuit, identical to the boys, running her mouth on the phone.
Where the hell is Child Protective Services when you need them? It's a goddamn shame she's not watching this boy. If I wasn't on my current mission, I'd arrest her ass.
He looked down at the boy. “You want to do me a police favor?”

The boy grinned. “Yeah!”

“I want you to go over there and keep an eye on your mom until I get back, okay?”

The boy beamed. “Okay!”

“What's your name?”

“LaMarcus!”

Darius stood straight and saluted the boy. “Okay, now you are
Deputy
LaMarcus.” Darius looked behind at LaMarcus and winked at an old black couple behind the boy as they enjoyed the way he
handled LaMarcus. He looked back at the boy. “Okay, go on. I'll check on you in a little while, Deputy.”

LaMarcus giggled, ran over to his mother, tapped her on the thigh and began telling her about how he had gotten deputized. The woman took the phone off her ear and covered the speaker as she listened. When she looked over at Darius, he smiled and waved as he headed toward the Hertz Car Rental booth to get the keys to his blue, rented Chevy Malibu. LaMarcus's mother gave Darius a grin that said she wanted to become deputized in a whole different fashion. She motioned with her finger for him to come to her. He smiled, tapped his watch and shook his head slowly.
Bitch, you are too skinny and way too ignorant for me
, he thought as he picked up his pace and hustled to Hertz.

Half an hour later, flight 1131 touched down. Piper rummaged through her carry-on bag in search of her cell phone. ‘Many of the off-boarding passengers and flight attendants gawked at the linebacker-sized black woman departing the first-class section. She ignored all the flight attendants' pleasantries as she exited the plane.
As much as I'm paying, he'd better answer his goddamn phone
, Piper thought, as she headed to baggage claim. After the fifth ring, she checked her watch.
It's not even ten o'clock yet; that bastard Hank had better pick up.
She hung up once his voicemail kicked in.
I'll deal with him later. I need to get a car and get to my hotel so I can go find my little red-headed ho.

Several yards away, next to a large concrete pillar, Darius pulled
down the bill of his New York Mets cap and discreetly watched the hefty woman make a beeline from the American Airlines boarding gate straight to the baggage claim area.
Well, it should be easy enough to find her in a crowd.
He stealthily trailed her as she got her bags and rental car. As soon as she went to the Enterprise Rental Car desk, he hurried out to his car so he could track her from the Enterprise parking lot.

A short time later, he followed her white, rented Nissan Maxima into the five-story parking garage of the Hyatt hotel in the middle of Downtown Oakland. He kept his distance and watched her back into a parking slot next to a gray minivan, half a football field from the elevators. He parked a few rows away from her and waited for her to get on the elevator.
So far, so good.
He got out his car, opened the trunk and opened his briefcase. Inside, he removed a three-inch-long, P-Trac Pro, GPS Tracking device. He held the tiny device and turned it on.